“Racing games always do well when a new console comes out, and you do a new physics engine and improved graphics, but towards the end of a console cycle it’s always quite hard to push racing games,” he said.

Wilson said that racing, more than other genres, “really relies on technology”. He mentioned winning gasps from journalists when showing off launch Xbox 360 title Project Gotham Racing 3, and said that kind of leap is only possible over generational gaps.

“So with the next hardware we should be able to create features with another level of immersion and quality. There’s stuff we can do with this generation that we couldn’t before, and with the next we can make everything that bit more awesome. Racing games need that,” he said.

Wilson seems to believe racing is foundering a bit, mentioning Blur, Split/Second and Motorstorm as examples of good, solid IPs which just didn’t sell well enough to justify further entires.

Blue was one of Bizzare Creations’ last games before the developer was shuttered in 2011; Activision boss Eric Hirshberg admitted the racing genre’s waning popularity was a factor.